As Stan Hayek watched his teammate run back a late interception for a touchdown, all he could hear was the deafening roar of the crowd. He was finally a national champion.

Well, not really. But he was a men’s Class A Intramural Flag Football champion. His team, Czech Us Out, took down the Mustache Riders with a score of 18-6 in the finals Sunday afternoon.

Hayek, senior in agricultural business, helped his teammates take the crown as Czech Us Out’s quarterback, throwing both of his team’s touchdown passes.

Grant DeVries hauled in the only Mustache Riders touchdown in a losing effort.

“We had a lot of fun,” Hayek said. “It was a well-run tournament and the officials were great.”

The tournament was smoothly operated with the help of Garry Greenlee, associate director of Recreation Services.

“We needed lots of fields, lots of officials and lots of time,” Greenlee said. “With 15 divisions and roughly 250 teams, we were really cramped for time and space.”

With everyone competing at a high level, teams like Czech Us Out took their competitiveness to an even higher level with a game plan.

“We have index cards we go over with the name and the play drawn out,” Hayek said.

Czech Us Out’s Taylor Schrage, junior in agricultural studies, also commented on his team’s attitude compared to their competitors.

“We are a lot more competitive than most other teams,” Schrage said.

Given the emotion and tenacity that some people bring with them to the intramural fields, the students are careful not to blow anything out of proportion.

“Everybody likes to know who the winner and the loser is,” Greenlee said. “That’s why we play competitive sports. We’ve only had two ejections all year. So while it’s competitive, they still keep it in perspective.”

Overall, Hayek said he has won nearly a dozen intramural champion T-shirts. But he didn’t want to stop at just a T-shirt in this competition.

“We think the A-League championship game should be played at half-time of an Iowa State game,” he said.

Greenlee, however, wasn’t so sure about only featuring the A-League.

“We would consider it,” Greenlee said.

“But our philosophy is ‘why would it be the Class A winners?’ I wouldn’t say it’s more important that they play rather than any other league. We hope to treat everybody equally.”